Klein: Don’t believe what the press tells about the pope

While the secular media were busily interpreting the pope’s recent interview as a departure from church teaching in matters of sexuality and abortion, the pope last Friday was addressing Catholic gynecologists, to whom he delivered the following message: “Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord ... every old person, even if infirm and at the end of his days, carries with him the face of Christ. They must not be thrown away!"

The Catholic News Service story continues: “Quoting ‘Caritas in Veritate’ the social encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis connected the protection of unborn life with the promotion of social justice.” The secular media are developing a narrative of an open new pope leaving behind the rigidities of his two predecessors.

The reporting tells us a lot more about the media than it does about the pope or the Catholic Church. Sometimes it seems that when a new document comes out from Rome, the mainstream press open it on their computers and use the search function for the words “abortion” and “homosexuality.”

And so in a 10,000-word article ranging widely through the pope’s life and ministry and containing interesting tidbits such as the fact that he uses a Latin breviary (book of daily prayer for the clergy), they find a few paragraphs where he talks about how the Church should deal pastorally in difficult situations.

In these paragraphs the pope is speaking in part about preaching and the Sacrament of Confession. From these paragraphs the press ripped a few lines out of context and spun a narrative of radical change. Yet the pope says within these very paragraphs that he is only saying what the Catechism says.

The media are obsessed with sexual freedom and desperate for a Church that would accede to the disasters of the sexual revolution and the brutality of abortion.

Pope Francis could not do so even if he wanted to. He does nothing of the sort in the recent interview.

What we are seeing is a classic case of the media promoting a narrative that suits pre-existing biases.

Having irresponsibly portrayed the gentle and scholarly Pope Benedict as “God’s Rottweiler,” they now promote an erroneous image of Pope Francis as a polar opposite. Obtuse as to the Christian proclamation of the forgiveness and mercy of God, they see Pope Francis’ vigorous proclamation of that message as if it were an endorsement of the things that need forgiving and necessitate divine mercy. Obsessed with sexual identity, they cannot comprehend the Church’s refusal to reduce a person to his or her sexuality. Determined to portray the pro-life movement as extremist, they look to find in the pope’s words a wisp of justification. They see the pope’s concern to contextualize volatile moral issues within the overall evangelical message of the Church as a downplaying of those issues.

To be sure, his methods are his own.

Rather than the careful teaching and precise language of his predecessors, he often resorts to gestures to proclaim the Gospel of life: the embrace of a severely disabled man in St. Peter’s Square or the blessing of an anencephalic baby in a Mass at World Youth Day in Rio. In this he brings to the Church and the world a fresh and marvelous testimony. He need not make the arguments against the culture of death and against the irrationality of so much of post-modernity in part because his predecessors did it so elegantly. But in no sense should his moral witness be played off against theirs. The interview (or, rather, that small part of it that the press has paid attention to) could not be clearer that he intends nothing of the sort.

It is, of course, standard journalistic technique to play up contrasts for the sake of a livelier story.

Moreover, religion in general and Catholicism in particular are complex phenomena that often require far more knowledge than is possessed by the reporters who cover the field. This case is no exception; indeed, it might prove to be the premier example of the problem.

Particularly off target was Sunday’s Associated Press story by Rachel Zoll in The News Journal in which she tried to situate the pope’s remarks in the context of America’s culture wars, the struggle against the HHS mandate, and the question of dissident politicians receiving communion.

It is often good to remember what the old folks told you: You can’t believe everything you read in the papers. In matters Catholic, that tends to be especially true.

The Rev. Leonard R. Klein is director of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Wilmington.